Entries in BMW 3 Series
(3)

Can Ford aford to cut 10,000 development engineers when it can't seem to develop a clean-sheet rear-drive platform for the Mustang?According to sources who have spoken on the promise of anonymity to The Virtual Driver, Ford executives, under the direction of new CEO Jim Hackett, have canceled the S650 Mustang program, and will cull up to 10,000 development personnel from the company’s engineering ranks by late next year. This happens at a time when GM is moving forward on multiple fronts, and the U.S. economy is growing at levels not seen in decades.

The winnowing of the development engineering staff, multiple sources claim, is based on an internal study that claims Ford has many thousand more development engineers on average than its major competitors, a number some inside the company dispute. Yet this downsizing comes at a time when Ford is embarking on an electric and autonomous vehicle push designed to bring it on par with industry leaders, and show Silicon Valley-obsessed Wall Street types that Ford is not an old line automaker, but is instead a tech-savvy mobility company focused on the future and deserving of a higher stock price.

The relaunch of Alfa will take more than just product. However, it is what form that product will take that has the industry talking. About the time you read this, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) CEO Sergio Marchionne will be ready to outline his new industrial plan for the company. It promises to be a very different report than the one he delivered in 2010.

At that time, Marchionne peddled an “affordable premium” strategy built around front-drive platforms used throughout the Fiat empire. In 2012, the refreshed MiTo hatchback would be joined by a five-door model that would be sold in the U.S. A new Alfa Spider would launch that same year on a variant of that platform, and a new Giulia sedan, station wagon and SUV would join the global product mix. This SUV, which was to be smaller than the 2014 Cherokee, would be shared with Jeep. Two years later, the Giulietta sedan (on which the Dodge Dart and Chrysler 200 are based) was to be heavily modified, and spawn a D-class SUV.

Another Detroit show come and gone, but one thought remains rattling around in my head: What about Jaguar?

Despite what everyone might believe, even though it was sold to Tata Jaguar is still in the orbit of the Ford Motor Company. Every one of the cars it produces today owes something to Ford, whether it is the engines, switchgear or the electrical architecture. It is based on work begun under Ford’s ownership.

Soon that will have to come to an end. Ford has moved on, and is in the process of revamping its range of vehicles and components. Already, the Focus has replaced from the platform that supplies the underpinnings for the Land Rover LR2 and Range Rover Evoque. The powertrains also are much modified, and Ford will stop supplying the older versions as soon as the agreements with India’s Tata, Jaguar Land Rover’s new owners, allow.